Archive for reading log – Page 2

Fiction:The Immortals: Olympus Bound by Jordanna Max Brodsky was a strange but intriguing mixture of Olympian gods with a suspense novel involving serial killings. The Olympians are fading away as they live in the modern world, gradually losing their powers, and some losing their minds as well as their memories (altered by human myth-telling). Artemis is the implacable protagonist, living in New York City and protecting women but not really managing to deal with new technologies or making new connections or keeping up her old ones; she is still feuding with Apollo about the death of Orion, for example. There is also a romance subplot for her, which was sort of a weird fit, I felt, with everything else going on; it turned out all right for the characters, as did the other two main plot threads, but I’m not sure the whole book was successful for me, as a reader. Too much going on? Not enough connection to the non-human characters? I did enjoy the worldbuilding quite a bit.

The Backup by Erica Kudisch was interesting and kind of disturbing. It was published by Riptide. I had thought going in that it would be a romance, but in fact it was not; more of a dark fantasy about rock and roll, with some sex in it, that reminded me a little of Elizabeth Hand’s work. The narrator is a recent PhD in musicology who can’t get a job, and ends up babysitting a rock star who claims he is actually Dionysus. People keep dying or losing their minds at concerts. It wasn’t my usual sort of book, but it was compelling enough that I kept reading when I’d only meant to sample. I especially enjoyed the narrator’s music geekery – it was worth reading for that alone. The best thing about Bach (and a thing Bach passed on to his sons, in a limited capacity, including Carl) is that the rules lay themselves plain in the opening measures and hold true on every musical level. They’re easy to memorize, no surprises, no unexpected transitions. The construction isn’t unsubtle—if it were, I wouldn’t have been able to finish my dissertation—but it’s cohesive, perfect, clear. It’s honest. Forthright. Bach makes a choice, and stands behind it, from the tiniest gesture to the piece as a whole, even to the entire compilation if you squint hard enough.

I finally read Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen by Lois McMaster Bujold. Everything I’d heard about it (not a lot of action; middle-aged domesticity and life changes; like fanfiction) made it seem right up my alley, and that turned out to be true. As a middle-aged person, I was utterly engaged by the low-key life problems of what to do with one’s life as it reaches its later stages, and choosing your own path, and asserting your selfhood.

The Best Corpse for the Job is by Charlie Cochrane, an author known for m/m historical mysteries. This one is a contemporary setting, either standalone or first in a new series, but still has the m/m element. The mystery is a bit obviously puzzle box (who had access to the building and when, etc.) but that was what I was in the mood for. It entertained me during a long, busy week, but I didn’t feel moved to seek out any sequels.

Widdershins by Jordan L. Hawk was a paranormal male/male romance/mystery set in the titular creepy town in New England during what seems like the late 19th century. The first-person narrator attended Arkham University, if that gives you an idea of the setting – but nobody in the town seems to think it’s creepy. The narrator is a brilliant philologist, his love interest a former Pinkerton detective; there’s also a female archaeologist who was a fun character. I was entertained, but got a little tired of the narrator’s rather active genitalia…maybe he could have had some other reaction than instant erection, once in a while?

Team Human by Justine Larbalestier and Sarah Rees Brennan has been in my TBR since it came out. It’s a YA about a town with a vampire district; the first-person narrator does not like vampires. Her opinion is challenged in several ways throughout the novel, which contains elements of commentary on the Twilight series. I liked the complexity of the protagonist’s journey as well as the details of a world that has always had vampires in the public eye.

Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire is a novella I’d gotten free. The concept is brilliant: it’s about a boarding school for teens who went to other worlds and then came back to our world, and of course have trouble fitting in. McGuire chose a longing, bittersweet, angry tone for the story; the characters are only truly happy if, by some rare chance, they manage to get back to their fairylands of nonsense or logic or even horror. They don’t like to accept they might be trapped here forever, and some will do almost anything to go back Home. I’d love to see some commentary on this story in relation to various famous portal fantasies.

Comics:Ms. Marvel Volume 4: Last Days by G. Willow Wilson was pretty damned intense and amazing cliff-hangery and agh, Volume 5 is not out until July! Agh!

Fanfiction:Further Studies in Impossibility by metonymy places Ariadne from the movie Inception into the Harry Potter series as the daughter of Teddy Lupin. This all works amazingly well, and I loved seeing the older versions of some familiar characters.

I got sucked into Known Associates by thingswithwings, a very long Avengers (mostly Captain America) story which is full of history about LGBT culture in New York City in the 1930s-1940s, and changes in same between then and now, and how Steve Rogers deals with his self-perception and the perceptions of others. The historical portion was my favorite part; it was lovingly researched and skillfully presented. Steve has to deal with how his body and his feelings about it changed after he was given the super-sereum during WWII, then he ends up in a future world with all new rules and has to figure things out all over again. Overall, it’s a sweet story with a lot of genderbending. Also, it has a lot of Rhodey! And Sam! Note that this story is really, really long. Like, over 200,000 words.

Fiction:Taking the Lead by Cecilia Tan is a contemporary romance with BDSM, first in a new series. The heroine and her sister have inherited their gazillionaire grandfather’s secret Hollywood BDSM club, and the hero is a rock star who’s fallen for the heroine and who happens to be dom to her sub. The characterization is terrific and I love that they have multiple problems going on: keeping the club secret is a big one, but the heroine is also trying to fight her way through the Old Boy Network in the film industry to develop films by women while dealing with her newly-discovered sexual submissiveness; the hero worries about class differences between them while figuring out this is the first time he’s really been in love. As someone who’s not into BDSM personally, I still love this book and find it hot. Tan’s characterization is my favorite thing about her work.

I finally got back to Reign of Beasts by Tansy Rayner Roberts, third in the Creature Court trilogy. In this volume, there’s some flashback to material already referred to in previous books, and a visit to another city where things are different: Aufleur, where most of the action takes place, is sort of future-Roman with lots of ritual and religious festivals, while Bazeppe is full of clockwork. The plot took some radical turns I wasn’t expecting, and cool weird stuff happened and, though the characters sometimes annoyed me, I was not bored! The creative worldbuilding really made this trilogy for me.

The Immortals: Olympus Bound by Jordanna Max Brodsky was a strange but intriguing mixture of Olympian gods with a suspense novel involving serial killings. The Olympians are fading away as they live in the modern world, gradually losing their powers, and some losing their minds as well as their memories (altered by human myth-telling). Artemis is the implacable protagonist, living in New York City and protecting women but not really managing to deal with new technologies or making new connections or keeping up her old ones; she is still feuding with Apollo about the death of Orion, for example. There is also a romance subplot for her, which was sort of a weird fit, I felt, with everything else going on; it turned out all right for the characters, as did the other two main plot threads, but I’m not sure the whole book was successful for me, as a reader. Too much going on? Not enough connection to the non-human characters? I did enjoy the worldbuilding quite a bit, and I kept reading without really meaning to do so.

Here is my enthused non-spoilery preview of Kings Rising by C.S. Pacat at Heroes and Heartbreakers.

Comics:
In Ms. Marvel Vol. 3: Crushed by G. Willow Wilson, Kamala thinks she might be falling in love with a boy even her parents approve of; as you can imagine, things do not go smoothly.

Ms. Marvel Volume 4: Last Days by G. Willow Wilson was pretty damned intense and amazingly cliff-hangery and agh, Volume 5 is not out until July! Agh!

I finally got to read Young Avengers Volume 2: Alternative Cultures by Kieron Gillen, which had some fun dialogue from young Loki as well as the arrival of Prodigy, who’s lost his mutant powers but still has all the knowledge he gained from them; I like his perspective a lot. There’s some nifty universe-hopping thanks to America Chavez, and Teddy is worried that unconscious use of Billy’s powers might have made them fall in love. I had a lot of trouble getting hold of this volume in particular! Luckily, I already have volume three.

It Will Probably Accelerate by northatlantic is another one of those Avengers stories in which Steve Rogers has to deal with being thrust into a future where almost all of his friends are dead. This one has Jim Morita, alive! But it’s mostly a slow-build Steve Rogers/Tony Stark romance along with the mourning.

Leave No Soul Behind by whochick is a really long AU of the Star Trek reboot universe, in which Kirk and Spock (and McCoy, and Uhura, and Chapel, and Scotty, and Chekov, and Gaila, and even Janice Rand, briefly) are in an outer space ambulance service, but the plot from the first reboot movie is still happening, and also there is eventually Kirk/Spock romance. But there are a lot of other things as well including Spock Prime, Kirk’s conflict with his mother and his related angst, Admiral Pike, Spock being awesome, Sarek!, and some excellent original characters. Why did we never seen an outer space ambulance service onscreen? I would’ve watched the hell out of that.

Further Studies in Impossibility by metonymy places Ariadne from the movie Inception into the Harry Potter series as the daughter of Teddy Lupin. This all works amazingly well, and I loved seeing the older versions of some familiar characters.

Here is my enthusiastic preview of Kings Rising by C.S. Pacat, third in the “Captive Prince” series.

I also read a book for anonymous review.

Fanfiction:Pantheon by Yahtzee is a really cool AU of X-Men: First Class set in 96 AD in which mutant powers are supposed to be gifts of the various Roman gods; but if that’s so, then why do non-citizens and slaves also possess these powers? And how may they be kept in check? The worldbuilding in this story is a lot of fun, and there are several love stories as well.

My Unshaped Form by atrata, a post-Winter Soldier Natasha Romanov/Bruce Banner story featuring the science of memory, trust, and the beginnings of romance.

I’ve recced this author before and doubtless will again. The Dead Forest by hansbekhart goes into the head of Captain America four days after he’s revived from the ice, when he’s subsumed by alienation, loneliness, confusion, and mourning. Historical detail makes everything more resonant.

And now for something completely different: Blood Sugar Sex Magik by Delphi is a short, delightfully filthy crossover story featuring Severus Snape and John Constantine. NSFW at all, at all. John can always tell when the Professor’s in town. The air in Soho grows heavy and hot and thick, and The Whip–grand old dame of the London sex scene–lights up like a birthday cake for those who have the sight. “Hello, sailor,” the magic-soaked building all but calls to him. “Looking for a good time?”

Life After Narnia by Transposable_Element is two stories, all about Susan Pevensie taking care of business, and mourning, after her family is killed. It’s a meditation on death and grief that really connected with me at several points. Characters from Arthur Ransome’s Swallows and Amazons series appear as well.

A Song for Ruatha by Aishuu is a Menolly story, set during McCaffrey’s Dragonsinger. Menolly travels to Ruatha Hold for a Gather, and stresses about the special song she’s supposed to write for it amid tensions about the young Lord Holder Jaxom and the dragon he recently Impressed, Ruth. Also has Competent!Sebell and of course Master Robinton, and a surprise Benden Weyr guest.

Radio to the Youth by Scappodaqui is a WWII-era Howling Commandos story from the pov of Jim Morita. As you know, Bob, I adore nifty historical detail, and this story has lots. Also there is a sequel!

Comics:
I read Ghost Volume 1: In the Smoke and Din by Kelly Sue DeConnick and Phil Noto, from Dark Horse, for a panel at Arisia, on Matt Fraction and Kelly Sue DeConnick. This was apparently a reboot of an older series which I hadn’t read. I enjoyed it, but not enough to pick up the second volume; once the central mystery was solved, I didn’t have enough attachment to the characters. The art was nice, though.

In contrast, I adored Pretty Deadly Volume 1: The Shrike, by Kelly Sue DeConnick and Emma Rios, from Image. Sometimes I had a little difficulty parsing the lush art, but I loved it anyway, if that makes sense. This is a Western, with a weird and strange mythology and characters whom I found intriguing even when they only had a few lines. Bonus points for multiple female characters and several characters of color. I will definitely read more of this; the collected volume two will be out at the end of May.

Also from Image, One Weird Trick (Sex Criminals 1) by Matt Fraction and Chip Zdarsky is fun. Two characters have the ability to freeze time when they orgasm, so they decide the rob a bank to save a library – the bank where he works, and the library where she works. As you do. The tone is wry, confessional, rueful, affectionate; it reminded me a bit of Phil Foglio’s XXXenophile, though the humor is in a more subdued key. I will read more of this series, as well, after I catch up on some of what I already own.

I finished up the last two volumes of Kelly Sue DeConnick’s Captain Marvel that I had – and realized I should have read these first. Oh well. Captain Marvel, Vol. 1: In Pursuit of Flight and Captain Marvel, Vol. 2: Down. I was excited to find Monica Rambeau bantering with Carol Danvers in volume two! I was less excited to realize the story running through these volumes does not conclude in them; the conclusion is in a crossover collection which is, of course, out of print at the moment. Sigh.

In Ms. Marvel Vol. 3: Crushed, Kamala thinks she might be falling in love with a boy even her parents approve of; as you can imagine, things do not go smoothly.

A-Force Presents Vol. 1 is a sampler of first issues featuring female characters: Ms. Marvel, Captain Marvel, She-Hulk, Black Widow, Thor, and Squirrel Girl. I didn’t realize it was a sampler when I bought it, so I only got three issues I hadn’t already read. It might be good if you want, well, a sampler of several titles! The first issue of Thor did not in fact feature the female Thor until the last page, which was frustrating; I still don’t know if I’ll like the series or not, as I’ve never been a reader of Thor. Squirrel Girl is adorable, though.

Fiction:There’s Something About Ari by L.B. Gregg was novella length, I think, a m/m romance that never took off for me, though I did finish it.

I picked up another in a long-running series. Obsession in Death by J.D. Robb was fairly rote, but it was ideal for circumstances in which I was constantly being interrupted. I was very happy each time a new characters/s had to be updated on the crime; that was very helpful in re-orienting me to the story.

And I finally read A Stranger to Command by Sherwood Smith, character-based military fantasy; if you liked her massive Inda series, this reminded me of it on much smaller scale. A foreign student is sent away from the intrigues of his home country and immersed in training at a legendary military academy, learning more about governing in the process. It’s a very internal book, but I could still see it as a movie as well.

Fiction Re-reads:Paladin of Souls by Lois McMaster Bujold, the second Chalion book. It amused me that the prtagonist, Ista, seemed much younger than she had on my first read, because I am now older than she is. I hadn’t read this since it first came out in hardcover, and had forgotten most of the details except for impressions of the characters and their fates; this proved to be true of my mystery re-reads, too.

I was reminded of Kate Ross by one of my brief holiday visits to Twitter, so I re-read the first three Julian Kestrel Regency historical mysteries: Cut to the Quick, A Broken Vessel, and Whom the Gods Love. I highly recommend this series; there are only four, because of the author’s death. Kestrel is a bit Campion with his mysterious background and formerly-criminal manservant; there’s also a precocious girl who brings faint echoes of the Lymond series.

Comics:Ms. Marvel Volume 2: Generation Why by G. Willow Wilson has a special guest! And giant reptiles! And Inhumans! I don’t entirely love the art – sometimes I like the cartoony faces, sometimes it seems a bit much. But I am getting used to it. Though this volume had two different artists, there seemed to be an attempt at unity of style, a style tinged with humor. Maybe because they’re aiming at a younger audience?

Hawkeye Volume 4: Rio Bravo is the last of the Matt Fraction run; the next volume will have a new writer. It was pretty intense, and as usual, I loved, loved, loved the clean and spare art. I did not expect to love Clint’s brother Barney, who hasn’t been that great in the past, but Fraction actually managed it. Also, I have Lucky feels. (Lucky is the dog.)

Captain Marvel & the Carol Corps by Kelly Sue Deconnick is the first, and possibly only, volume of the new “Secret Wars” that I intend to read. The story didn’t grab me all that much, as there were a lot of new-to-me characters, and I wasted a lot of energy trying to tell them apart. But the whole female WWII-style airplane pilots thing was pretty awesome, and I loved how well the art matched the idea.

I didn’t read a huge amount of fanfiction in December, due to re-reads and traveling and not having much free time, but I loved I’ll build a house inside of you by magdaliny, an AU story about young Natasha Romanov and the Winter Soldier escaping together. With a happy ending, if you’re worried.

Fiction:A Trifle Dead by Livia Day is a humorous small-town mystery. I enjoyed all the quirky characters and the to-me-unusual setting of Hobart in Tasmania; there’s also a lot of excellent, excellent food description, as the first person narrator owns a cafe and likes to experiment. I feel smug about the mystery because I figured out who the villain was, but that didn’t impair my enjoyment. The only thing that annoyed me a little was the Scottish character whose dialect was written out.

After that, I fell into another reading slump, so I re-read The Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold. So far as I recall I only read it once, when it first came out, so there’s a lot I didn’t remember about it. The re-read went very quickly, and while it was in progress I didn’t feel the need to stray to anything else. I bought an e-edition of the next one in the series for possible holiday re-read.

I had a couple of DNFs, but I’ll give them another month or so before I record them, in case I go back and finish.

Comics:Runaways: The Complete Collection Volume 1 by Brian K. Vaughn has been on my TBR for a while, and I enjoyed the heck out of it. For those not familiar with the series, it’s about a group of kids who find out their parents are supervillains, so they run away and try to defeat them…except one of them might be a traitor to the cause. In the group of kids, girls outnumber boys! Though I identified the Mole among the kids before it was revealed, I guessed other things wrong, and was pleasantly surprised by several plot twists. I have Volume 2 waiting for me; there are four in all.

Nonfiction:Work/Text: Investigating the Man from U.N.C.L.E. by Cynthia Walker is the book form of the author’s dissertation, so is likely not for everyone, but if you’re a fan of the show as well and like to read about media studies, as I do, then it’s lovely. I had met the author years ago at a convention for media fandom and heard about her research then. I’ve been looking forward to the book ever since! It’s repaid my wait. Once you get through the theoretical section, it’s fascinating to see how many people from how many angles affected what eventually appeared in the aired episodes, and how the success of those episodes altered the rest of the television landscape – and how the rest of the television landscape affected it in turn, for example the success of Batman with Adam West influencing the third season of U.N.C.L.E.. I particularly liked the section about the various tie-in novels, including the juvenile one (THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E.: The Affair of the Gentle Saboteur) that I read multiple times as a kid, despite having never (at that point) seen the show.

October was a pretty sad reading month for me! I was extremely busy, which was part of it, and I seem to be in a bit of a fiction slump as well. The only fiction I finished was 1) a sequel and 2) a book for anonymous review, but I did finish a nonfiction book I’d been working on for months.

Fiction:
I started, but did not finish, The Quantum Thief by Hannu Rajaniemi, an author recommended to me by Gardner Dozois way back before this novel even came out. It seems to be a space opera caper novel with inventive worldbuilding, only more complicated, but I just wasn’t in the mood. Later, perhaps?

I also started Opening Act by Suleikha Snyder, a romance featuring a Gujarati-American heroine who is a music reporter and her unrequited crush-since-college, a white guy who’s in a band and feels he doesn’t deserve her because he’s working class (I think, he also keeps her on a pedestal because she’s really smart). I was not in the mood for their early-twenties angst. They had an interesting range of friends as well, so I am guessing there might be more books about their circle. Again, maybe later?

I did finish Foxglove Summer by Ben Aaronovitch, so I am now up-to-date on the Rivers of London series. I enjoyed the book; I liked the police procedural aspect, and the continuing plot elements that grow more complex rather than less, but I feel the next book is probably going to be more momentous; a lot of future stuff felt like it was being set up in this one.

Fanfiction:No Yesterdays On the Road by pocky_slash is an X-Men: First Class AU which features a Magneto/CIA!Moira road trip and brief appearances by a six-year-old Ororo Munroe. The setup includes Erik staying with Charles after the movie ends, rather than splitting off from him, but that’s only incidental to the plot. Road! Trip!

Nonfiction:
In And If I Perish: Frontline U.S. Army Nurses in World War II by Evelyn Monahan and Rosemary Neidel-Greenlee is what it says on the tin. Overall, it’s terrific, except I wish the occasional anecdotes were a little less like well-worn sepia photographs tucked in amongst the facts. I am sure there is more life and significant detail in those stories than is appearing on the page. Or maybe there was, once, and it was lost through repetition. I think some anecdotes came from letters, others from stories told to family, both of which would have been self-censored. Sometimes there’s a bit too much detail for smooth reading – giving people’s full names and home towns and dates things happened tends to slow down the narrative.

The section about the invasion of Italy and the harrowing experiences of the medical personnel on the Anzio beachhead was the most breathtaking part for me, though the horrifying events of the bombed hospital ship came close. The last section on the invasion of Germany felt, to me, more rushed than the previous. I’d also been expecting to hear more about the POW nurses in the Pacific, who began the book, but Victory in Europe was pretty much the end. Overall, I’d recommend it. I haven’t yet seen another like it.

Fiction:That Scandalous Summer by Meredith Duran is the first historical romance I’ve read in, it seems, forever. The characters are intriguing! The hero is a doctor whose brother is trying to bully him into marrying; the heroine is a widow whom he discovered drunk and sleeping under a bush. It turned out I wasn’t as much in the mood for a romance as I’d hoped, but I did really like the complex relationship between the hero and his manipulative brother; they’re at odds, and angry with each other, but love each other at the same time.

Half-Resurrection Blues by Daniel José Older is terrific! I met the author when we were in the same reading session at Arisia one year, and absolutely loved the story he read there, so I bought his first novel as soon as it came out. (If you ever get a chance to hear him read, go!) Then, of course, the book sat in the (electronic) TBR for months on end. On the good side, it took me long enough to get to it that a sequel is out, Midnight Taxi Tango. Half-Resurrection Blues is Urban Fantasy, set in Brooklyn, with a strong noir feel. The first-person protagonist, Carlos, is half-dead and half-alive, able to see and interact with both the living and the dead, which makes him ideal for the purposes of the NY Council of the Dead, who use him to deal with ghosts and other supernatural types who are causing trouble. His best buddy Riley is a ghost. Carlos’ understated, sarcastic narration was a high point of the book for me, as was the dense, complex, original worldbuilding (magical and otherwise) with its realistic mix of people and cultures. The Brooklyn neighborhoods in the book, some of them, are gentrifying, which added an element of liminality. This being noir, there’s a Girl of course, who’s Trouble, and also Carlos is a snazzy dresser. I could totally visualize the movie of this book, and it would be awesome.

Broken Homes by Ben Aaronovitch is fourth in an urban fantasy series about magical cops in contemporary London that I’ve been reading since the beginning. I’d put this one off for a while because I’d heard it had a twist I wasn’t sure I would like. But as it turned out, I was okay with the twist, and am interested to find out what happens next. I love this series for the characters and worldbuilding – for example, the way Peter Grant’s deep interest in architecture is woven throughout his first-person narration which also contains police jargon, wry humor, and anecdotes about his family. I recommend this series highly.

Comics:Step Aside, Pops: A Hark! A Vagrant Collection by Kate Beaton is out! I’d read most of the comics before, online, but it was lovely to find a few things I’d missed scattered throughout. And this volume has my absolute fave of all her comics, Chopin and Liszt. My only complaint is that I wish the print had been a bit larger, particularly when there was a line of commentary, in the author’s handwriting, at the bottom of a page. I had to squint a few times, even while wearing my glasses. Online archive for Hark, a vagrant.

I’m finally caught up with book logging!!! I did less pleasure reading last month because I was working on review books (which I don’t discuss here).

Fiction:
I was so satisfied with Power and Majesty by Tansy Rayner Roberts, first in the Creature Court trilogy, that I moved on to the second book, The Shattered City. Things got worse all over the place, hooray. There are multiple intriguing female characters, and though it shouldn’t need saying, I will say that they interact with men but are not dominated by them, even when sex and power are involved. I’m taking a break before reading book three of the trilogy.

Gunpowder Alchemy by Jeannie Lin has the same dedicated approach to worldbuilding as her historical romances. It’s steampunk set during that world’s version of the Opium Wars; the protagonist is the daughter of a scientist who was executed after a British invasion using iron steamships overwhelmed the Chinese imperials’ technology. I really love that she sees several sides of the social changes resulting not only from imported opium but from various technological advances and from political shifts in the imperium. The book had several of the most inventive steampunk devices I’ve seen, including prosthetic boots, operated with the use of acupuncture needles, for a woman with bound feet. The protagonist, Jin Soling, is trained as a physician and has some engineering skill; her love interest is an engineer, who was her father’s protege. There’s a sequel coming out December 1st, titled Clockwork Samurai. As you might guess from the title, they go to Japan. Via airship, of course.

Fanfiction:
My absolute favorite fanfiction story of the month was The Hero’s Journey; or: What Jasper Sitwell Did Last Summer by pagination, an unexpected AU take (or is it?!) on Captain America: The Winter Soldier. One, Jasper is not evil, yay! Well, only a little. Two, it’s hilarious. Three, there is Night Vale.

No Reservations: Narnia by Edonohana, is another odd yet terrific crossover, in which chef Anthony Bourdain visits Narnia and tries out its cuisine for his reality show. I really want to try toffee-apple brandy.

Thanks to a friend, I read a Coffee Shop AU (those are A Thing now) for Mad Max: Fury Road that is pretty excellent. Blood, Coffee, & Motor Oil by underwater_owl keeps a surprising amount of canon intact in a contemporary small town Australian setting. From the author’s note: “The lesbian separatist feminist motorcycle gang is literally just that.” There’s a Furiosa/Max romance that follows the movie’s dynamics pretty closely except with, you know, romance added.

Fiction:
I re-read Herland by Charlotte Perkins Gilman in order to moderate a Readercon discussion on the book, for which I volunteered at the last minute.

I also read Persona by Genevieve Valentine for a Readercon discussion. It’s not that long. Set in a future where international politics takes place (nominally) through the medium of national celebrity diplomats – Faces – and the freelance press is underground, sometimes in the guise of paparazzi (Snaps), it follows one Face (Suyana Sapaki) and one Snap (Daniel Park) through a series of dangerous events. It’s essentially a thriller but with a lot of excellent characterization and worldbuilding. I would love to read a sequel to this, with more on the Snaps as well as the Faces.

Another re-read for Readercon: A Hat Full of Sky by Terry Pratchett. I thought about excavating for my print copy, but decided against it partly because that would be a pain, partly because the e-book meant I could carry it more easily. Also, with an ebook it was really handy to be able to highlight relevant passages. I was impressed anew by what an excellent book it is. There is so much going on thematically: growing up, going out into the world, learning social responsibility, deciding what shape your life will take. When I first read this, the fourth book in the Tiffany Aching series wasn’t out yet, so it was a pleasant little shock to encounter the phrase, “I shall wear midnight.” I haven’t actually read that book yet, though I bought it when it first came out; I’ve been saving it, at that point knowing my unread Pratchett books would be limited in quantity. It makes me sad to think about reading it, but it would be sadder never to do so.

Power and Majesty by Tansy Rayner Roberts, first in the Creature Court trilogy, was recommended to me years ago. I’d started it a while back, while riding the bus, but had only read the first chapter or so. I got back to it this week (again on the bus!) and determined to finish it this time, so I could move forward in the Terrifying TBR. It’s fantasy, the world seemingly loosely based on the Roman Empire; at least the religion is very Roman, as are the names of people and things. The magical source is called animor, and if you have it, you can see things others can’t, and are able to fight beings? forces? that attack through the sky at night, and can remove whole cities from reality and memory. The characters are complex and intriguing, and I especially like the main female character, Velody. I could read a whole novel just about her and her two female friends and their couture business.

Black Widow Volume 1: The Finely Woven Thread by Nathan Edmondson. I felt this volume was mostly a love story between Natasha and the cat that has decided she is hers. A bunch of things blew up, also. I will go on to the next volume, as I laughed in appreciation a couple of times while reading.

Winter Soldier: The Bitter March by Rick Remender is neat because it’s a period piece, set during the 1960s; it’s hardly a spoiler to say the Winter Soldier does not, however, manage to free himself at that time. I wasn’t really into the retro elements of the story, and wanted more Winter Soldier, less S.H.I.E.L.D.. I probably wouldn’t seek out anything else by this author.

Daredevil: The Devil, Inside and Out and Daredevil: Hell To Pay by Ed Brubaker were meh. I feel a bit more caught up on Daredevil continuity after reading these, but I didn’t love them all that much. All of the female characters would have been much better off had they departed to do their own thing. I mean, there’s a history of the female characters being angst-fodder in this series – recall Elektra – but still. Enough already. I had a volume of Kevin Smith’s run as well, but it looks like the one where they kill off Karen Page, so I decided I didn’t want to bother with it.

Captain Marvel Volume 1: Higher, Further, Faster, More by Kelly Sue DeConnick was a lot of fun – excellent dialogue, and a surprisingly complex storyline, as in the characters (the aliens as well as Carol Danvers) had to make a lot of decisions, all of which would have both good and bad results. Basically, Carol has gone out into space to take an alien back to her people, and ends up embroiled in a conflict between an empire and a planet full of refugees from a wide range of planets. The Guardians of the Galaxy have a story role, as well. I recommend this if you’re interested in superhero/sf comics and don’t want to struggle with decades of old continuity.

Vengeance by Joe Casey is, I believe, the first appearance of America Chavez. The storyline is a bit crowded and confusing, so I don’t think I’d recommend this to anyone new to comics or new to the Marvel Universe. But I am enjoying figuring stuff out, and also being reminded I used to like Daimon Hellstrom as a character, back in the day when I read Ghost Rider and Defenders and a bunch of other random titles.

Fanfiction:All For One by ironychan is a fanfiction novel that starts out with Steve Rogers and Sam Wilson looking for Bucky Barnes, but almost immediately veers into an adventure story involving Natasha Romanov, S.H.I.E.L.D., Hydra, lots of clones, a talking bird, trust issues, an eventful trip to South America, and a monkey. I highly recommend this one.

Fiction:Archivist Wasp by Nicole Kornher-Stace starts off violent and world-weary and continues to be gripping but painful. It’s set in a post-apocalyptic world (isn’t everything, nowadays?) in which human cruelty and desperation take center stage. Wasp, the protagonist, is weary of it, and tries to do a good thing, but her attempt fails miserably and results in more hopelessness. …I’m not making this sound very appealing, am I? But the writing is great and it kept surprising me. I backed away twice but then couldn’t resist going back in. The plot got more intriguing after the story took an unexpected turn that brought two subgenres together. My one wish is that the ending had been more complex. I don’t think institutional change of that nature would have been very easy.

Nonfiction:
I read numerous issues of The Economist, to which I have a year’s subscription (using airline points). I utterly failed to read them in order, which was kind of interesting, actually, when I read analysis of a projected event after it had already happened and compared the two. I mainly chose this magazine for its outsider perspective on the US, and the way its world coverage is biased in a slightly different direction from American press. Also, free.

Fanfiction:Written in Blood and Bone by Sholio is a really great adventure story with Steve Rogers, Natasha Romanoff, and Bucky Barnes, who is beginning to come in from the cold. Also there are mountains and a monster in a cave.

Even if you think you’re tired of Marvel Cinematic Universe Captain America and Bucky stories, read Sparked Up Like a Book of Matches by Sena. It made me laugh several times with its clever turns of phrase and pacing. It was written before Age of Ultron came out, incidentally, so uses Comics!Clint who watches “Dog Cops.” Read this one! Read it! By the same author: Heart, Have No Pity on this House of Bone by Sena is basically Bucky In the Pacific Theater, and Also He Is Gay. It takes place before Captain America: The First Avenger, and I think the author did some research on what it was like to serve on Guadalcanal.